On one of our walks we discovered you may leave Texas but "Texas never really leaves you"! If you zoom in on the picture of the building with the banners it seems we just missed seeing the Houston Ballet. Along the perimeter of the harbor and coastline a walkway with small parks stretched for several miles. Every afternoon, after siesta, the streets and walkway were crowded with families and couples out for strolls. Our plans were to spend several days in A Coruña. Fortunately the rain clouds stayed away and we had sunshine the whole time. However it was good we planned an extended stay because offshore the winds howled nonstop at gale force levels. A Coruña is also a favorite stop on cruise ship itineraries and each day of our stay a different ship was docked just off our port. 
Unfortunately, try as we might, we could never get the attention of one of the drink boys to bring us an Umbrella Drink!One our third day in A Coruña we took the train for the one hour trip to Santiago de Compostela, one of the most revered places in Christianity. Each year thousands of pilgrims trek several hundred miles across northern Spain by foot, horseback or bike to visit the town and famous cathedral, the burial place of St. James.
Many thousands more, like us, arrive by train. To quote travel writer Rick Steves, "The best destination in the northwestern province of Galicia, Santiago de Compostela might well be the most magical city in Spain. 
This place has long had a powerful and mysterious draw on travelers--- as more than a thousand years' worth of pilgrims have trod the desolate trail across the north of Spain just to peer up at the facade of its glorious cathedral." 
How could any self respecting tourist, or Christian for that matter, pass this up? Anyway the story of St James goes something like this. After the Crucifixion of Jesus the apostles spread out and brought his message to other lands. James chose northwest Spain and preached there for several years. After returning to the Holy Land he was beheaded but before his body could be fed to the lions it was rescued by two of his disciples who brought the body back to Spain and buried it in a secret place. His body lay undiscovered for 800 years when a monk guided by the stars and a vision discovered the grave and the local bishop proclaimed it to be that of James. From that the rest as they say is history. Santiago is Spanish for St. James and the Cathedral and town grew along with the legend. We enjoyed our day touring the city, it’s wonderful market
where we realized Spain was not taking the Swine flu epidemic seriously, excellent seafood
and, of course, the Cathedral. The Cathedral is beautiful and inside is St. James’ tomb where he is enshrined in a silver chest.
As is the custom, we said our thanks and a small prayer. And what did we pray for? Good health for our loved ones and safe travels for us for the winds were now in our favor and tomorrow we face “The Coast of Death”.The Coast of Death, Costa de la Muerta, is the stretch of coast extending south from A Coruña to Bayona. It’s where the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic converge and is known as the Costa de la Muerta because so many ships have been wrecked along the rugged coast. How would we and Lone Star handle the two day journey? We slipped the lines at 10AM on May 5th and ventured out once more. We anxiously looked at the skies. Ok – so the sun was shining, the sky was cloudless and the most winds we encountered over the two day period was 10 knots which of course was mostly on the nose. A 2 day uneventful motor sail.
The first night after a 54 nautical mile journey we spent a peaceful evening anchored off the fishing village of Camarinas. After a second day of mostly motoring; this time 75 nautical miles, we arrived in Bayona, just north of the Spain/Portugal border and were tucked in at the Montes Real Club de Yates by 5PM. The Coast of Death – conquered by yet another sailing vessel. Thank you St. James!
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